Emmerson Mnangagwa, though at the time he was Minister of the Rural Housing, virtually run the country during the run-up to the presidential elections run-off in 2008 after opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai failed to garner an outright win to run the country.
Zimbabwe had two sitting Vice-Presidents at the time, John Nkomo and Joice Mujuru.
According to a cable released by Wikileaks, the country was being run by the Joint Operations Command which comprised of the heads of the military services, police, and prisons, as well as Mnangagwa, and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono.
President Robert Mugabe had virtually given up and was prepared to step down after the 29 March 2008 elections but he was told not to do so by the JOC which set in motion a wave of violence as retribution for voting against Mugabe and ZANU-PF and vowed to win the elections at any cost.
The cable said two committees were formed to steer Zimbabwe toward the election. The first was a campaign and logistics committee whose members included Patrick Chinamasa (Justice Minister), Saviour Kasukuwere (Deputy Youth Minister), Nicholas Goche (Labour Minister), a representative of the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) and the military triumvirate of Chiwenga, Sibanda, and Chihuri.
This committee was responsible for voter mobilization, food distribution, transportation, and fuel supply.
The second committee on information and publicity, was chaired by Chinamasa, and was responsible for controlling ZANU-PF’s message in the state media and assuring that the MDC did not have the same access to the media that it had before the March 29 elections.
Other members were Webster Shamu (Policy Implementation Minister), Chris Mutsvangwa (Former ambassador to China), and Bright Matonga (Deputy Information Minister).
The cable said that though there were factions within ZANU-PF they were being held together by the common goal of winning the elections.
Gono, for example, favoured a government of national unity rather than a runoff election, the cable said. He was not liked by most other ZANU-PF officials but was indispensable to keeping the financial ship afloat.
“The military is not believed to be close to Mnangagwa, Goche, and Chinamasa, but for now they are working together, with Mnangagwa assuming a virtual presidency role as a member of the JOC,” the cable said.
“Mugabe does not sit with the JOC but is briefed on a regular basis. While he is not making day to day decisions, policy decisions cannot be made without his assent, and we believe he knows the broad outlines of what is occurring in the country, if not the details.”
Below are the Wikileaks cables that mention Mnangagwa’s name.
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